


Up And Away

by likeadeuce



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Homicide: Life on the Street
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Yuletide 2007
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-03
Updated: 2009-12-03
Packaged: 2017-10-04 03:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeadeuce/pseuds/likeadeuce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Among the many places John Munch could have gone after Baltimore. . .</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up And Away

After Bayliss left without a word to anyone, and the thing with Billie Lou went south, Munch knew he had to get out of Charm City and go somewhere else. Anywhere else. It wasn't even for his own sake anymore; he couldn't call it self-preservation. It was everyone-else preservation. Partner with John Munch, drop like a fly.

Meldrick told him he was taking the whole thing too personally, but by that time he had already answered the ad.

"You're leaving Baltimore for that place?" Gee demanded, scowling his usual scowl as he signed the transfer order.

"Are you kidding?" Munch answered. "I jumped at the chance. It's a conspiracy nut's paradise. Who is running the Falcone crime family these days? What is it with the revolving door at Arkham Asylum? And, biggest mystery of all, what is the true identity of B--?"

"Your old job will be waiting for you," Gee grunted. "Just don't take too long about it."

Honestly. Munch loved his crab cakes and Natty Bo, and felt the pain of being an O's fan, as much as the next guy. But he didn't see why anybody would think Gotham City was a step down from Baltimore. Sure it had its crime, it had its nutcases. But Gotham also had high society, and big industry, and with that futuristic-looking elevated train, it had great public transportation. You didn't even have to see most of what went on down below.

Unless you were a cop.

"With all due respect, Lieutenant Gordon," Munch said, his first day on the job. "I don't think it's necessary for you to give me a partner. I'm bad luck, I'm cursed, I'm like Spinal Tap."

Gordon just stared at him over that hangdog mustache. "We work partners here," he said. It turned out, lieutenants in Gotham didn't take any better to friendly suggestion than they did in Paris-by-the-Bay.

They matched him with a young detective named Montoya. When Munch made an entirely good-natured comment about how he might never have left the Casablanca of the Chesapeake if he had ever been paired up with a woman like that, she gave him a not-entirely-good-natured stare. Later, Montoya's old partner, a square-jawed detective named Bullock, clued him in that, "Renee doesn't drive on your side of the street. Or, maybe, she does."

One night, they got to a crime scene just as Catwoman was fleeing. Munch and Montoya whistled, in unison, then looked at each other. They were going to get along fine.

Munch had been on the job for a couple months when the name "Bruce Wayne" came up in conjunction with a case they were working. "Isn't that the guy who burned down his own house?" Munch wanted to know.

"That's the guy who owns everything in this city," Montoya grunted. "We're never going to get word one out of him."

"Point taken," Munch answered. "But wouldn't it be fun to try?"

Bruce Wayne agreed to see them in his home. He greeted them in a silk bathrobe, with the stench of alcohol on his shirt, and a blonde and a redhead on either arm. "Don't mind them," he drawled, looking from one scantily-clad woman to another, "they don't seem to speak English."

Munch glanced at Montoya, but went on with the questioning. No, Mister Wayne had not seen Selina Kyle on the night in question. No, he had no idea where anyone would get the idea that he had seen her, he was sorry to waste the police department's time, but at least two other women could testify to his whereabouts on the entirety of the night.

"Two other women than Miss Galore and Miss Goodhead here?" Munch asked.

Wayne smiled. "I can even provide an interpreter. Now, if you'd like me to speak to my friend Lieutenant Gordon, or to Miss Dawes or Mister Dent down at the D.A.'s office. . ."

"What a waste of time," Munch fumed, on the way out.

Montoya shrugged. "I liked the Bond girl joke."

"I hope you found Mister Wayne to be helpful," said the butler, as he opened the door for them.

"Yeah," Montoya grumbled, "Thanks, Cadbury."

"Cadbury, yes," the butler answered. "From the Richie Rich cartoon. So many people rely on 'Jeeves'."

"Which is stupid," Munch said, "because Jeeves was Bertie Wooster's valet. Not the butler."

"Ah, yes," said the butler, and he almost smiled. "A gentleman's gentleman."

And then they were outside.

"So it's always going to be like this in Gotham?" Munch asked.

"Sometimes," answered Montoya. "Sometimes it's worse."

Munch bought postcards for everyone in the unit, back in Baltimore. "Having a great time," he wrote on each one. "Batman wishes you were here." And then he drew a big yellow and black signal, in magic marker.

He would go back and visit again, someday.

Maybe he would go back and stay.

Or maybe he would move on to some place else entirely.

He wondered if Metropolis was hiring.


End file.
